T-Mobile Gives Parents Allowance Control Over Minutes, Msgs & Downloads

By Editor Wireless and Mobile News on July 31, 2008 12:17 PM

T-Mobile will be offering Family Allowances, allowing parents manage when and how their family members use their T-Mobile phones and service.

With Family Allowances, parents can give their teens an upfront monthly wireless allowance that works on all the phones T-Mobile offers. The feature lets parents set and change limits for minutes, messages and downloads (e.g., games, ringtones and wallpaper) using an online tool.

Once the allowance is reached, the feature shuts off service for that specific element and parents receive a notification. Parents can stay in contact with their family members by setting up "Always Allowed" numbers that will continue to connect, even after allowances have been spent. Any unlimited calling features that are included in a family's plan, such as myFaves and T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile, can also still be used, which preserves the value of the calling plan. Additional controls are available so parents can choose to set allowances on unlimited calling features, if desired.

With Family Allowances, parents can choose to establish additional limits on the time of day a phone may be used, set allowances to zero to prohibit the use of minutes, messages or downloads (other than to "Always Allowed" numbers), and establish numbers that are blocked from calling or sending messages to any phone on their family plan.

In addition to Family Allowances, T-Mobile continues to offer Web Guard, a free-of-charge feature that restricts access to certain adult-themed (18 and over) websites.

Family Allowances will be available in the coming weeks at select T-Mobile retail stores and online at www.t-mobile.com. For an introductory rate of $2 per month, parents can manage all lines within their T-Mobile family plan.

The Family Allowances feature is available to customers with qualifying post-paid multi-time plans. Introductory rate is a limited-time offer. Taxes additional. Details, including restrictions and service limitations, will be available soon at www.t-mobile.com and retail stores.